DAY OUT: London

This trip to London really was a bit last minute, and because we already had a prior engagement for the evening it was a bit crammed in, but a great day all the same. The primary reason for the trip was to drop a watch in to Watchfinder for a trade-in deal, unfortunately I couldn't pick up my new watch because they have to confirm mine first, but I should get it within about ten days, and at least I didn't have to carry it home.

First port of call was the National Gallery, we arrived at about 10:15, not quite as early as when I came with Rich in February, but we still beat most of the crowds. We made a bee-line for Holbein's 'The Ambassadors' which is still truly remarkable, and then made our way through most of the gallery, taking in Stubbs' 'Whistlejacket' and Delaroche's 'Execution of Lady Jane Grey' amongst others.

Paul Delaroche's 'The Execution of Lady Jane Grey'

We spent about 75m in the gallery and then made for Leicester Square, stopping off at All Bar One for a drink and then heading through Piccadilly Circus and up Regent Street. We visited Kate Spade, which was okay. They had the lobster and crab bags in which were entertaining, but now the whole middle of the store is clothes, which is not so good.

We headed up to Oxford Street and along to Debenhams, and then down Bond Street and right at the Breitling boutique and down Avery Row to Watchfinder. All went pretty smoothly there and we headed back onto Bond Street where we walked straight past Karen Brady of 'The Apprentice' fame (with someone I took to be her daughter, and it seems I was spot on!)

We stopped at Charbonel et Walker to buy a small selection of their awesome chocolates and then down to Richoux for lunch. I had a burger, Rose had the garlic half-chicken. We were starving by this time (I think we got there a 1:55pm) and after a very tasty (and very filling dinner) we walked back up to Piccadilly Circus and got the tube back to Euston. It was a shame we didn't have time to do more, like visit Fortnums or look at the jewellery and watches in Bond Street, but we were in a bit of a rush, wanting to catch the 3:15 back to Northampton.

We caught it in plenty of time, and then had to sit on the train for ten minutes because there was a problem with one of the carriage's doors. Never mind, we were home by five, which gave us a couple of hours to get ready to go out again!

DAY OUT: Burnham on Sea / Chipping Campden

We decided to drive through the Cotswolds to Tewksbury/M5 Junction rather than via the M42, which may or may not have been a good decision... we got delayed by a serious accident (the roof had been cut off the car when we got there - it had been rear ended by a van) on the way down and lost quite a bit of time - but then again we don't know what the motorway could have thrown at us...

All in all, with that and stopping at the wonderful Gloucester Services to eat lunch it took us about four hours... and, hilariously, as we got to the sea front we were confronted by a wall of sea mist so thick we couldn't see the beach, never mind the sea. Also the temperature had dropped from 25deg at the services to 13 degrees by the sea.

Still we were there so we set off on a walk and after about an hour ended up back at the Wetherspoons were we enjoyed a couple of glasses of Diet Pepsi waiting for the mist to clear. Miraculously it did and we had a quick walk along the beach back to where we'd parked. Here we paused to consume the cinnamon bun we'd bought at the services and then set off for Chipping Campden and the meal we should have had on Monday.

Unfortunately we ended up in another accident, two cars and a car transporter had shut two and half lanes of the motorway and we ended up losing even more time there. We arrived the The Noel Hotel and it seemed quite busy, but we managed to get a table in the (very nice) restaurant (everyone wanted to eat in the conservatory for some reason) and it was jolly nice.

I had an enormous burger (served on a stupid plank of wood) and Rose had fish and chips. We were too full to eat pudding, and there wasn't any puds we were desperate to try, but the main was excellent and we'd definitely go back if we were that way again.

DAY OUT: Stanwick Lakes (nr Rushden)

Combined a trip to Nanna to offload some cushions and pillows with a trip to Stanwick Lakes. The lakes themselves are a little small to make a decent walk out of, but there's some long paths leading out in both directions which can be used to extend the walk. After a long walk on Saturday and Monday my calves were killing me a bit, and it was a bit hotter than we'd have liked, but it was okay.

DAY OUT: Batsford Arboretum / Bourton on the Water

Despite it being the middle of April we were still rather too early to enjoy Batsford Arboretum at it's best. There were a few magnolia trees blossoming, but mostly it was trees without leaves, which wasn't really quite what we were expecting. Still, we managed to spend quite a while walking up and down the (quite hilly) paths. The Arboretum advertises itself as having 56 acres of blah blah blah, but it turns out that 43 acres of that is inaccessible deer park, and we managed to pretty much cover the place in a hour and half and we sat down for about 15 minutes.... still, it was nice enough.

While we were sitting down there was a super-cute little dog which walked past us and behaved very oddly. We wondered if it didn't like our sunglasses or something but the owner assured us it was just anti-social.

After lunch we drove on to Bourton on the Water, which we haven't visited in quite a long time. We're not entirely sure how long, but definitely quite a while.

We drove through the village and parked at one end in the main car park, just past Birdland (now Birdland and Dinosaur Adventure apparently, for reasons that are not entirely evident: besides money, obviously). From here we walked back through the village until we came across the model village, which we visited last time we were here. The model village itself is okay, but doesn't really take that long to look at... however, there was an additional exhibition, which costs another £1 to access, which allows you entry to a very small room where they have various model exhibits set into the walls. Most of these were very good, but they really needed to be set all at eye level and in a bigger space as it was rather difficult to get a good view of most of them.

From here we walked through the village to the Motor Museum which my Mum told me about not too long ago. Well, like a lot of these kind of places, it was good in principle, but the curator needs to clear out some of the crap. For instance they had a 1970's Volvo, but you could barely see it because it was blocked in behind a Land Rover camper van thing. Too much space is given over to unnecessary shite, like thirty Box Brownie cameras that have nothing to do with motoring (or toys, because apparently this is a motoring and toys museum), and why is thirty very similar cameras better than one? I don't know, but it seems to me that this is kind of place where people ring up the owner and offer them a load of junk they don't know what to do with and the owner doesn't know how to say no.

And so the collection grows, which is a shame because they do have a fairly decent collection of cars here. The petrol pumps and garage signs complement the collection, the cameras, scary dolls and chickens(!) do not.

The 'Gift Shop' was the usual themeless collection of junk, there were of course some car themed items, but also fudge (naturally) and jewellery (for no good reason). And so we left, pondering our next move. We had planned to stick around and visit a restaurant in Chipping Camden on the way home (although I didn't really think we would) and we decided to stop in at Dial House for a drink to mull it over.

We could tell it was a bit posh because the menu outside didn't have any pound signs on it... you know, Medallions of Artichoke - 5, that sort of thing. Inside the bar area wasn't that spectacular and Rose's chair creaked like it was about to collapse, but it was okay and the landlady was nice enough (Google images suggests the rooms and restaurant look much better). We had a couple of Cokes and decided we couldn't be arsed to hang around long enough to eat in Chipping Camden, when we left... and only when we left I noticed the enormous Carrot Cake in the corner. Well, I was slightly gutted, to say the least, but it probably wouldn't be as good as Richoux's (or Asda's, actually).

We walked back through the village and spied a jewellers which had a couple of second hand Breitling Colts for sale and a TAG Heuer Link going for £995. I thought about trying the Link on, but it looked a little on the small side, and the bezel looked a bit too thick for my liking so I left it. We had a pretty decent journey back and got home around 6:30pm, just in time to put dinner on.

MEAL OUT: Tollemache Arms (Harrington)

Time again for a birthday meal, and this time we ventured half an hour South to the village of Harrington and The Tollemarche Arms. We visited this place many years ago, but as I remember it the menu was properly wanky. Well, wanky no more, because the menu offered us some splendid choices, including roast chicken (which I had), the Tolly Burger (which Rose had), Strawberry Eton Mess Cheesecake and Sticky Toffee Pudding and Salted Caramel Ice Cream (half each)...

Great service too and a nice atmosphere, there's really very little to criticise... albeit, if there is one thing I would say don't serve salt and pepper in a dish with a spoon - it's just silly.

SHOPPING: Meadowhall (Sheffield)

Our first visit to Meadowhall this year, and a bit of a last minute dash to get Rose's birthday presents before next Friday! Fortunately this was a very successful trip with a plethora of presents targeted and attained within a very short space of time. Also, of course, I tried on three different TAGs... which gives me something to blog about.

Sometimes when we go to Meadowhall it can be very frustrating and unproductive, but this was not one of those times. We were only there for about three hours, if that, but we got pretty much everything we wanted - although I did forget to get a birthday card!

After lunch we came home and then went in to Harborough to try and book our holiday to Geneva, but ultimately concluded we'd be better off doing it ourselves on the internet - and so we did!

MEAL OUT: The Crown Inn (Tur Langton)

To celebrate Mum and Dad's Wedding Anniversary we took another trip over to Tur Langton for another very nice meal. We ate in the bar again, and I had a very nice chicken and leek pie, while Rose plumped for the half chicken. For pudding we shared a vanilla cheesecake with some lovely raspberry coulis. Couldn't fault it for the price really, and the service was good too.

HOLIDAY/SHOPPING: Nottingahm / McArthur Glen Outlet

Since we'd spent the last week of March taking it in turns to be ill, we decided to take ourselves off for a night away over Easter. We didn't want to go too far, and the Doubletree Hilton at Nottingham seemed to fir the bill just fine. We'd not been there before, but it was very nice and being a Doubletree of course there was the mandatory cookie on arrival - always good!

We quickly settled in the bar for a couple of hours and then booked ourselves a table in the restaurant. I had a lovely steak and Rose had duck, and the restaurant was definitely the right choice and much nicer than eating in the bar would have been.

For dessert Rose had the raspberry cheesecake from the bar menu, while I had chocolate salted caramel tart with salted caramel ice cream (in a brandysnap basket!) which was perhaps slightly over the top (I switched it from vanilla).

We slept reasonably well, but I woke up feeling quite rough all the same, so we didn't get to try out the gym. We headed off to the outlet and arrived there just after opening, only to find that some of the shops weren't open because it was Easter Sunday. We could understand the whole thing being shut, but quite why M&S is legally required to be closed but Superdry isn't is a mystery.

Well we still managed to spend a while there all the same even if we didn't actually buy much, and good to see that Thorntons have buggered off and been replaced by Lindt instead - definitely a step in the right direction!